Artist Statement

I have always been attracted to realist art and now especially with an influence from the impressionists I sometimes try to make a painting "pop" by tweaking colors and exaggerating tonal differences. An old brick wall or stretch of field accentuated with strong lights and darks will snap my senses to attention with a newfound emotional connection to what was only mundane just before. I do enjoy oil painting in the studio but my pastels so easily lend themselves to the spontaneity and brilliance of plein air painting. It's almost as if I am sculpting a colorful representation of that nook of nature as it presents to me.

My collection of paintings are emotionally loaded with recollections and impressions of places visited, people engaged and nature absorbed. It turns out that I take away my "postcards" of experience that later on I can review and instantly relive the whole gestalt. I can even share my postcard impressions with others reading the inscription -"Wish you were here." And then they are!